HOWLAND Chief executive to resign from Stoneridge wiring harness maker

The company founder and chairman will serve as interim CEO.
By DON SHILLING
VINDICATOR BUSINESS EDITOR
HOWLAND -- Stoneridge, a locally based maker of wiring harnesses and other electrical products, is starting a national search for a new chief executive.
Cloyd Abruzzo, who has been president and chief executive for 10 years, is resigning effective Dec. 31. He also is stepping down from the board of directors but will remain as a consultant for three years.
A company press release didn't provide a reason for the resignation, and Abruzzo could not be reached to comment.
"We are gratified that he has agreed to stay with the company through the end of the year and then to continue serving Stoneridge as a consultant," D.M. Draime, company chairman and founder, said in the release.
Draime will become interim chief executive Jan. 1 and remain in that post until a successor is named.
Abruzzo earned $950,000 in salary and bonus last year directing the company, which had $636 million in sales in 2002.
Background
Abruzzo, 53, joined Stoneridge as controller in 1980 and was appointed vice president and chief financial officer in 1984. He became president and chief executive in 1993.
Draime, 70, started the company in 1965 after he left Packard Electric's local wire harness making operations. He started the business in Orwell in Ashtabula County, where it made wiring harnesses for agricultural vehicles.
The company began making harnesses for Packard in 1977, but 10 years later it expanded to new markets and now makes products for a variety of cars, trucks and farm equipment.
The company moved its headquarters to Howland in 1983 but does its manufacturing at plants around the world. It employs about 5,500 people but only about 10 at its headquarters.
In another personnel move, Stoneridge named Gerald Pisani, vice president of the company and president of Stoneridge Engineered Products Group, as chief operating officer of Stoneridge, effective immediately.
Pisani, 63, had been president of Joseph Pollak Corp. from 1985 until it was acquired by Stoneridge in 1988.
shilling@vindy.com